14 year old son wants to invest

[Vik555]

My son wants to invest a small amount of money (accumulated birthday/Christmas money that he never spends). Can anyone recommend a good app to learn and invest through?

You will need to invest for him really. Why not make decisions together initially?
Have him start by thinking about big trends for the coming years - clean energy, AI and then together research key players in those fields.

Thanks, that's useful :)

How small are you talking? Some sites will have fees.

I've put my DS unspent money in Premium Bonds for now as interest is so poor everywhere - not a long term investment of course.

Junior isa?

I think this is brilliant.

Investment is something we should all be taught and teach our children. It's a key life skill that not that many people actually have...

I would look at an investment app (see picture). You will need to invest for him as he's under 18 but it could be great to look at investments and have discussions.

Maybe also buy him a book that introduces him to financial principles like Rich Dad, Poor Dad for example

I've used Trading 212 - be careful to read the small print as it has some alarming things in it! The main one being that if you stop using the account they can come and claim back the value of your free share - you have to delete the account once you've stopped using it, which isn't obvious how to do (email them and ask to delete it).

Was also going to say junior stocks and shares ISA. I don't know much about them though...

My DS13 has been doing the Telegraph's Fantasy Fund Manager for the last few months so he can think about trends etc. He's quite enjoyed it and there may be similar ones out there your son could follow without losing any real money.

tell your kid to take a shower and make sure he isnt falling down the alt-right pipeline! best of luck xx

Get your son a Junior ISA with Vanguard... There's a small selection of funds there and they will do decent performance, better than any bank account over the 5 years he should be looking to hold his investments...

Hopefully when he has been in 5 years, continued to save, and when he see's just how easy it is, and compounds his profits with more deposits and eventually he will be wealthier than you...

Just be aware, he can lose money, but should he not sell... HOLD HIS NERVE - in time it will come back and it will be a bump in the road... It happens in every market, so its just a matter of when.. Hopefully with Covid having been last year, there will be another 5-7 years where we have smooth returns...